Training Smart to Lower Your Risk of Injury

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Training Smart to Lower Your Risk of Injury

Visualization and Exercise

Visualization is an effective tool for creating the life you desire. It is also the key to making your workouts more beneficial. Visualization enhances the natural connection between your body and your mind. When you picture your muscles working in your "mind's eye", the "wiring" between your nervous system and your muscles increases. More nerve-muscle connections are created and enhanced, resulting in stronger and smarter muscles. It is really quite remarkable. And the nice part is that it doesn't take any extra effort, other than thinking about it!

Have you ever been out running when you suddenly experience pain in your shins?  Shin splints¹ are common in runners, but there are things you can do to lower your risk.


One thing you can do to lower your risk of injury is to make sure you have a plan for exercise. Having a well thought out strategy can help you train smart and train safe. When you train smart and follow your plan, then you can also train hard while minimizing your risk of injury.

Training smart and safe means paying attention to what is happening in your body as you workout. "Paying attention" is a learned skill that depends upon repetition and mental focus. Visualization is an important aspect of mental focus, and if you're visualizing ideal form while you're exercising, then you are automatically paying attention!

If you are a runner, you can focus on:
•    Visualizing a strong, fluid and erect spine, and a strong abdominal core.
•    Keeping your head upright, looking forward and slightly down, while keeping your chest open and relaxed.
•    Keeping your arms and shoulders relaxed while you move.
•    Visualizing a long, fluid stride with your feet landing gently, and then pushing off powerfully, as your leg extends behind you.

Training smart also involves trusting your instincts, instead of following your ego. This can be challenging for many of us. In the middle of a workout, it can seem imperative to complete your set and do that last rep even if your form is suffering. But the truth is, form is the most important thing.  If you end up sacrificing proper form to complete those last few reps, you may get an unexpected and unwelcome result.

It is the same for runners. If you are running and your form begins to break down, take that as a signal to lessen your speed enough to reestablish your good form. If you train while focusing on proper, effective form, you will be more likely to run a good race at a good pace when the time comes.

As in much of life, there is a sweet spot where you are training hard enough to get the results you're seeking, but not overtraining and increasing your risk of injury.  Remember, to pace yourself so that you continue to receive the benefits of training over the long term, rather than being side-lined by an injury.



¹Couture CJ, Karlson KA: Tibial Stress Injuries: Decisive Diagnosis and Treatment of "Shin Splints". Physician and Sportsmedicine 36(6):29-36, 2002 

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When Today's Fashion Becomes Tomorrow's Pain

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

When Today's Fashion Becomes Tomorrow's Pain

Tips for Being Comfortably Fashionable

Choose a purse or briefcase that has a wide adjustable strap, long enough to wear across your torso. This helps to distribute the weight more evenly across the body. Keep your purse or briefcase as light as possible - take time to remove unnecessary items - and switch from side to side frequently to ease the burden. Try not to keep your wallet or card holder in your back pocket - especially when you are sitting or driving for extended periods of time. Wear comfortable shoes as much as possible. Wear flat shoes if you walk to work, and bring your heels with you. Keeping a comfortable lower-heeled pair at your office is helpful if your feet begin to bother you during the day. Be picky when shopping for shoes, and only buy them if they are very comfortable.  Look for shoes with lower heel heights. Your body will thank you. If possible, remove your heels and stretch your calves and hamstrings during the day. Avoid wearing excessively tight clothing.  If clothing is very form-fitting, make sure the fabric has some stretch. Consider your daily tasks, and if your clothing affects your movements in a negative way, consider outfits that will better fit your lifestyle.

Looking your best may not always be the best thing for your body. Today's society is generally very style and fashion conscious. The downside is that clothing designers and style professionals focus on creating visually interesting styles that can sometimes be impractical or even uncomfortable to wear.

Fashion shows typically feature models strutting down the runway in high heel stilettos and tight pants or skirts. These styles may look good on the catwalk, but in real life they are rarely practical and often result in back, foot, leg, neck or spine problems.  Many women are unaware of the adverse effects of wearing high heels, tight clothing, and carrying a heavy purse or briefcase.

Women often wear high heels to complement an outfit rather than for comfort, not realizing that high heel shoes can cause serious pain and problems in the feet and legs.  It can even cause or exacerbate back pain.

In a natural barefoot posture, the body's weight is properly distributed.  When a woman wears high heels, the position of the body is altered which causes shortening and tightening of certain muscles - particularly the hamstrings, and the gastrocnemius muscles of the calves.  It also causes increased stress and strain on your body while it struggles to adapt to an altered center of gravity.  Wearing high heels for an extended length of time increases the normal curve of the lower back, causing the pelvis to tilt forward. These changes are necessary for the body to maintain equilibrium while wearing high heels, but they are bad news for the musculoskeletal system. 

Look for heels that are well-made, supportive, well-cushioned, and ideally less than 3 inches high.  Also, try to minimize the length of time heels are worn, and alternate them with good, supportive low heeled shoes.

Another major problem area when it comes to fashion is purses or handbags. Women often carry too many items in their purses, and are usually unaware of the potential health risks associated with lugging around too much "stuff."  When a women carries a purse or briefcase on one shoulder, she will unconsciously raise that shoulder and tighten her muscles in an attempt to keep it in place.  This throws off her body alignment and causes even more muscles to tighten in an attempt to balance this uneven weight distribution.  This can can cause chronic back pain, and an abnormal curvature in the spine.  When we see a patient who has been carrying her purse on one shoulder, it is usually very obvious due to the telltale postural issues and misalignments.

It is much better to use a purse or briefcase that has a strap long enough to be worn across the body, which distributes the weight more evenly.  It also allows your shoulder to relax more because you are no longer subconsciously tightening your muscles to keep it in place. The other important factor is the weight of your purse or briefcase.  Go through your bag regularly, removing anything that you don't absolutely need to carry each day.  Even with the bare minimum though, your purse or briefcase can still be a significant burden, especially if you are carrying it for an extended length of time. Also, get in the habit of switching your purse or briefcase from one side of the body to the other, to keep your body more balanced.

Both men and women are susceptible to the influence of fashion. However, women are much more likely to wear clothes that are too tight. A tight pencil skirt or tight jeans can be attractive on some women, but they can also make it more difficult to sit, walk or bend. This will usually have a negative effect on posture, and can cause or exacerbate spinal misalignments.

The main problem area for men is that they often carry their wallets or cardholders in the back pocket of their pants. This can be convenient, but carrying your wallet in the back pocket of your pants can throw your body off balance when sitting for an extended period of time.  Make a point of switching your wallet to your front pocket if you know you will be sitting or driving for a while.

Stylists and designers are often more concerned about the way something looks rather than the effect it has on the body. Pay attention to the way your body feels.  It's nice to look fashionable, but it's more important in the long run to select shoes, bags and clothes that not only suit your style and lifestyle, but are also comfortable.  Besides, feeling good will make you look even better as your natural health and vitality shines through.  By following these simple suggestions, you can be fashionable while still being comfortable, and feel as great as you look.

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Things You Need to Know About Lab Tests

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Things You Need to Know About Lab Tests

Analyzing Lab Tests

Various aspects of health care have made significant advances in the last few decades . Laboratory testing has also improved, not only in the range of tests available, but also in the quick turnaround-time of results. Unfortunately though, no lab test is perfect. Tests may either inaccurately suggest that a patient has a particular disease they don't have, or instead miss the presence of the disease in someone who actually has it. Either of these situations can be very problematic. MRIs, for example, are a helpful tool that reveal more information than ever before. But not every suspicious shadow on an MRI means something. It takes time and experience to accurately interpret MRI images. It is not unusual for new technology to become available well in advance of our ability to accurately interpret the results. Lab tests need to be interpreted cautiously. In order to have an accurate diagnosis, we need to also have supporting evidence in the form of patient history and physical exam findings, in addition to the lab test results.

You're in your doctor's office because you noticed some unusual symptoms and are afraid something might be wrong. Even though you know some lab tests are probably necessary, that doesn't prevent you from feeling anxious. We may want to know the results, but at the same time we probably are very concerned about what the outcome might be. Hearing the doctor casually mention that "we need to do some blood work," can be enough to trigger a strong bout of anxiety in many people.

Then when you get the results, it can be difficult to decipher the medical jargon, especially when the tests are "positive". Most of us have had the experience of our mind tuning out after hearing the initial news that "your test results are positive".  In this situation, our minds begin racing ahead, imagining all sorts of awful possibilities.

Occasionally, a compassionate physician will endeavor to put the lab results in a less-worrisome perspective for the patient. For patients, it helps to know some important facts  that will help to empower you whenever you have lab tests done.

First of all, statistically one out of every 20 tests performed will be reported as "abnormal", even though the result is in fact "normal" for the individual being tested. If you are perfectly healthy and have 20 tests done on your blood sample, one of those 20 test results will be "out of the normal range" based on statistics alone.¹

This anomaly is a result of the way the normal test range is calculated, which involves testing a large group of "normal" people and eliminating the top and bottom 2.5% of the results, leaving the middle 95% as the normal range. So if 20 tests are done, statistically one will be considered "abnormal", only because its results will fall in the top or bottom 2.5%.  It may be perfectly normal for you, but it will still be reported as "abnormal".

Other things to consider are the specificity and the sensitivity of the lab test.²  Specificity has to do with whether or not a particular positive test result actually indicates the presence of the disease for which you are being tested.  If a test has a specificity rate of 90%, then in ten out of 100 positive results, the patient does not actually have the disease. Sensitivity has to do with how accurate the test is in detecting the disease when the disease is truly present. For example, if a test for colon cancer is 90% sensitive, it will miss ten cases of the disease out of every 100 cases.

To summarize, if a test has low specificity, test results reporting the presence of the disease may be inaccurate, and if a test has low sensitivity, actual cases of the disease may be missed. All these factors need to be taken into consideration when interpreting lab test results. Things are not always as they seem.³

The important thing to realize from all of this, is that lab test results should always be evaluated in the specific context of the patient. An isolated lab test result - or a set of lab test results - needs to be related to the patient's circumstances and condition.  Making a diagnosis based on lab results alone can be a big mistake.

Similarly, x-ray, MRI, and ultrasound results must also be interpreted in context. Attempting to interpret an x-ray without any clinical information will likely result in an inaccurate conclusion. Context is everything. Your doctor should be willing and able to explain why certain tests are necessary, and to help you understand what the results indicate, when taken into consideration along with your exam and other findings.



 
¹Thomas SL, et al: How accurate are diagnoses for rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis in the general practice research database? Arthritis Rheum  59(9):1314-1321, 2008
²Friston KJ, et al: Classical and Bayesian inference in neuroimaging: theory. Neuroimage 16(2):465-483, 2002
³Kobayashi M, et al: Intraindividual variation in total and percent free prostate-specific antigen levels in prostate cancer suspects. Urol Int 74(3):198-202, 2005

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Spring Cleaning? Protect Your Back!

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

Spring Cleaning?  Protect Your Back!

The beautiful blue skies and warm temperatures of spring often motivate us to open the windows, let the fresh air in, and give our homes a thorough cleaning.  Be careful though, household chores can sometimes literally be a pain in your back. Even common cleaning activities, such as loading and unloading the dishwasher, washing dishes, scrubbing the bathroom, and vacuuming the floors, can cause back strain resulting in anything from mild discomfort to debilitating pain.

Fortunately, you can lessen your risk of injury by making sure you are using proper form while cleaning.  It also helps to take plenty of breaks and to do a little each day instead of one marathon session.


One of the most important things you can do to protect your back is to always make sure you use good body mechanics while lifting heavy objects, such as a bucket full of soapy water or a heavy vacuum cleaner.  Make sure to always bend at your knees rather than your waist, and always keep the item you're lifting as close to your body as possible to reduce back strain.  Also, make sure you are facing the object you are picking up (rather than twisting while you lift) and if you need to place it to the side of you, turn your whole body to face that direction before bending your knees and setting it down.

Here are some additional tips to help protect your back:

• Whenever you need to stand for an extended period of time, see if you can find a way to lift one of your feet a little higher than the other one, and then periodically alternate.  For example, if you are washing dishes, you can open the cabinet below and rest your foot on the ledge to reduce back strain.  (Cashiers, and other people who stand all day, often find this little trick invaluable.)
• When vacuuming, transfer your weight back and forth between your front and back feet, using your body weight to propel the vacuum as you lunge.  Also, periodically switching from one hand to the other helps to keep your muscles working in a more balanced manner, reducing back strain.
• If you can, switch hands while scrubbing your bathroom or performing other similar tasks, and pay attention to your body mechanics, making sure to minimize any twisting.
• Don't overdo it.  As mentioned earlier, spread out your chores throughout the week, doing a little at a time.  Similarly, if you have a lot of dishes to do and notice that it tends to aggravate your back... only do half and let them dry in the dish rack while the others soak in hot soapy water, finishing them later.
• If you notice your back is feeling tight, take a break, lie down on your back, and hug your knees to your chest until your back muscles relax.  This may be a good time for some additional stretching.  Your chiropractor can show you some easy stretches that can help reduce muscle spasm and tension.
• If your back is hurting, use an ice pack wrapped in a thin towel.  If you don't have a frozen cold pack, a bag of frozen vegetables can make a good substitute.
• If the pain continues for more than a day or two or if you experience numbness, tingling or any weakness in your extremities, see your chiropractor.  Your Millar doctor of chiropractic is an expert in spinal health and can help identify and treat your problem.

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Stacking the Deck

This is a repost from the Millar Chiropractic Clinic website.

 

Stacking the Deck

Making Your Own Luck

When it comes to ensuring your own good health, you can make your own luck by taking positive actions that stack the deck in your favor. Otherwise, depending upon "luck" by itself, without applying any extra effort, will only take you so far on your journey toward health. Some people are lucky because they are blessed with a speedy metabolism. They are able to eat whatever they want without gaining weight. But just because they haven't been gaining weight eating a lot of fast food cheeseburgers, french fries and milkshakes, doesn't mean that a diet like this is conducive to long-term health. It's important to realize that there is a down side to eating foods that are low in the nutrients your body needs. Eventually even a fast metabolism will begin to rebel against this type of diet, eventually slowing down and storing excess body fat as the person gets older. When this happens, it may take a lengthy amount of time to reverse the effects, even after switching to a more healthful diet.  Even without excessive weight gain, a poor diet over time usually predisposes a person to other health problems as the years go by. Instead, you can stack the deck in your favor by making good lifestyle choices and by being vigilant about your health. Chiropractic check-ups help to make sure that your body functions at peak levels. If it isn't, then your chiropractor can suggest a treatment plan that can help you get back to your optimal level of fitness. Your doctor of chiropractic can also offer guidance as you improve your diet and choose exercise activities that will help keep you and your family healthy and well.

Life isn't fair. Some people can do all the right things and still struggle with serious health problems. At the same time, there are other people with terrible habits who end up living long lives before dying peacefully in their sleep at a very advanced age.
Many people suffer from chronic hypertension (high blood pressure) which causes their hearts to have to work much harder than a person with normal blood pressure. Hypertension is associated with the increased incidence of strokes and heart attacks, and is a leading cause of death. ¹

Chronic hypertension is often considered to be a "lifestyle disease". ^2,3  Being overweight or obese (which includes approximately two-thirds of American adults) and/or diabetic will increase one's risk of chronic hypertension, as will smoking and not exercising regularly.  Actually, being overweight/obese, not exercising, and smoking are the top three causes of this serious malady.

It is clear that maintaining an appropriate weight, performing regular exercise, and either stopping smoking (or even better - never starting to begin with) are the three primary lifestyle actions related to decreasing one's risk of developing chronic hypertension. Even so, a small percentage of people who are slender, have never smoked, and have exercised regularly all their lives may still not be immune to developing high blood pressure. In a case such as this, chronic hypertension is referred to as "essential hypertension". The person has a very healthy lifestyle that does not include any risk factors for hypertension, and yet they still become hypertensive. That is the luck of the draw, otherwise known as a genetic predisposition to this disease.

In contrast, you may know someone who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day since they were a teenager, drinks a large amount of alcohol almost daily, and still they rarely ever get sick. They somehow avoid developing lung cancer or liver problems, and have no real problems with heart disease or chronic hypertension.  Even though they're living a life that's contrary to all that is known about achieving good health, they somehow manage to thrive well into their 80s and 90s.  They love to remind their friends and relatives that they've never been sick a day in their life, while lighting up another cigarette. A person such as this is described by epidemiologists as an "outlier" - someone whose health parameters represent an outlying 2.5% or less of the standard values. Their particular genetic predisposition seems to give them an indestructible constitution.

Of course the exceptions only prove the rule, and it's important to realize that their existence does not suggest that it would be wise for the rest of us to ignore the rules for good health. Regular vigorous exercise and a healthful diet (that suits one's particular constitution) is very important for the other 97.5% of the population without an abnormally resilient constitution. Chiropractic care is an important component of a healthy lifestyle. Chiropractic care helps people, young and old, achieve their best possible health. This natural form of health care helps take the "luck" out of the equation by minimizing its influence. We can stack the deck in our favor, and chiropractic helps us do that in the arena of health and well-being.


¹Zhang WW, et al: Hypertension and TIA. Int J Stroke 4(3):206-214, 2009
²Schmid AA, et al: Current blood pressure self-management: a qualitative study. Rehabil Nurs 34(6):223-229, 2009
³Pascual JM, et al: Body weight variation and control of cardiovascular risk factors in essential hypertension. Blood Press 18(5):247-254

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